Case study: Lilly keen to educate staff

Auto-enrolment has motivated Lilly UK to improve its employee financial education programme in the last two years.

Julie Osman, director of pensions and benefits at the firm, says: “We wanted people to make informed
choices about the benefits they had, to be able to maximise them and be a little more informed about their own finances.”

Lilly, which provides research and development and manufacturing and commercial operations on behalf of US pharmaceutical manufacturer Eli Lilly, appointed Origen to provide employee workshops on topics such as debt
management, making the most of pensions, and an introduction to individual savings accounts (Isas). Lilly
is about to launch a corporate Isa.

Osman has also reintroduced half-day financial planning workshops, also hosted by Origen. These are tailored
for three employee groups: new joiners, staff in mid-career and those five years from retirement. This follows Lilly’s launch of a defined contribution (DC) pension to replace a defined benefit (DB) scheme, which it closed to new entrants in 2010.†

Osman says: “If people are very confident in their finances, hopefully they will be more engaged at work because they have not got money worries niggling away at home.”